1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a display apparatus for a sewing machine with a pattern sewing or forming function for displaying a pattern selection area, in which a plurality of patterns can remain displayed and a pattern can be selected therefrom, and a pattern display area, in which a selected pattern can be displayed and edited, on the same screen during the selection of the pattern.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a sewing machine with an embroidery function has a sewing mechanism for forming stitches by driving a needle bar, a thread take-up, and a rotary hook, and an embroidery frame driving mechanism that moves and drives an embroidery frame in crosswise directions independently. A controller controls and actuates the sewing mechanism and the embroidery frame driving mechanism based on sewing data (including sets of stitch data) for an embroidery pattern, to embroider the pattern on a work cloth set in the embroidery frame.
The sewing machine basically pre-stores pattern data (including sewing data) for embroidery patterns in a ROM of the controller and a ROM card that is detachably inserted into the controller. A pattern (or pattern data) selected from the embroidery patterns stored can be edited before embroidering, such as repositioning, magnifying/reducing, and mirroring.
A sewing machine with embroidery function, having a display and plural touch keys representing various functions through the display, is structured to display a pattern selection screen on the display when selecting an embroidery pattern, and a pattern edit screen on the display when editing the selected embroidery pattern.
On the pattern selection screen, a plurality of embroidery patterns (character patterns and picture patterns) are displayed in a pattern selection area that accounts for the most part of the display. A desired embroidery pattern is selected with a touch of the display as a pattern to be used with embroidering. When a character pattern is selected, the selected character pattern is displayed in an area except for the pattern selection area of the pattern selection screen, for confirmation.
After the pattern is selected, the pattern selection screen is switched to the pattern edit screen. On the pattern edit screen, the selected pattern is displayed in the pattern display area (corresponding to a size of the embroidery frame in which embroidery is available), so that it can be edited with a touch of pattern edit keys such as eight direction keys.
In the conventional sewing machine with embroidery function, especially when a character pattern is selected, it is displayed in an area outside of the pattern selection area of the pattern selection screen. However, as the area is very small, an operator can only confirm the selected character pattern. The operator can not see and grasp the layout of the pattern such as the size and the orientation of the pattern and the array orientation of the pattern especially consisting of a plurality characters.
Therefore, it is not until the selected character pattern is displayed in the pattern display area on the pattern edit screen that the operator can see and grasp the layout of the pattern. Because the operator can not grasp the layout when selecting a character, the operator is likely to change the character pattern when the layout is displayed on the pattern edit screen after the character selection. In this case, it is necessary to change the display from the pattern edit screen to the pattern selection screen again for re-selection of a character pattern, which is very troublesome.
In a conventional sewing machine, the pattern size and the array orientation are set in advance, and a character pattern for embroidery is selected. However, the pattern size and the array orientation are not yet seen on the display when the pattern is selected, therefore, the similar problem still exists, and the preset information on the pattern size and the array orientation does not function effectively.